CFLs and UHF interference

[Rod]

Less than nineteen inches?

(I don't think the jet engine is mandatory.)

[Rob]

I was told, when I first started driving, to engage the clutch when starting because it relieves load on the battery/starter. This may have been more of an issue with cars of the time, but it's a habit I've never got out of.

Rob

[Rod]

A few years ago I tried to get to Gatwick by public transport. Just the two of us. Ended up coach would have cost around EIGHTY pounds. Much cheaper to drive (although that will depend on length of stay).

Since then, they have instituted a bus service to Heathrow. I tried that. By the time you have waited for the damn thing and gone round Uxbridge and ended up in a bus station needing a taxi (not a good combination) and paid all the fares it too was more expensive than driving. (Train was no better in cost and even worse in time/potential for missed connections.)

So absolutely agreed. And that is before the massively higher convenience and comfort and lack of carrying.

[Andy Hall]

Especially the ones where the driver has a hat

[charles]

I was also taught the same. On a cold morning you don't want the battery (which will have reduced output because it's cold) having to stir up the oil in the gear box as well as the engine. Maybe I learned this because in general, where I lived, it froze at night in the winter.

[Andy Hall]

I've tried and periodically continue to try all of the options for both airports, Heathrow pretty much on a weekly basis. It really depends on your starting point and what is being carried. If starting from central London with not too much luggage, it's interesting to use the frequent express trains. It would be also if one were living some way away in that if one has to take a longer train journey first, the incremental time to go to central London as long as there isn't a station change is not too significant.

It all falls apart for people living within about 50km from the airports but not in central London. Coach services are simply too unreliable, slow and inconvenient, taking public transport out of the equation.

This leaves the choice of driving and parking or using a taxi or private car firm. There are times when parking at the airport is viable - e.g. T5 has had a deal in the short term recently making it quite attractive. However, for most of my trips of 2-5 days, the least expensive and most cost effective solution overall is to use a local private local car firm. There is oversupply in that market at present and good deals can be negotiated.

[Andy Champ]

That does make more sense I admit. Perhaps the "someone" wasn't :jerry: after all!

Andy

[Andy Champ]

They may claim it's road legal, but IMHO the headlights are too low.

Oh, and the jet is a fake. They *aren't* road legal!

Andy

[Rod]

Precisely. Our main problems with rail are a) getting from home to station (driving to Watford, for example, is a substantial proportion of the journey to Gatwick); b) getting from one London station to another with luggage; c) time (amazingly long end-to-end journey times at some times of day); d) effectively no service back out of London during the night (hell if your flight was delayed).

The bus/coach journey I mentioned earlier went via Oxford (i.e. in almost the opposite direction for 25 or so miles) - with something crazy like a two or three hour wait there.

[Dave Liquorice]

How does engaging the clutch reduce the load? The default state (pedal not pressed) of the clutch is engaged and the input shaft of the gear box is driven.

Now if you *disengaged* the clutch, by pressing the clutch pedal, drive is removed from the gearbox input shaft.

[dennis]

AFAICS they need to be a minimum of 500 mm from the ground to be dipped beam headlamps.

makes the car possibly legal if there are pop dipped beam units fitted.

Of course it isn't a new car so it may just predate any of the laws.

Its a stupid design for a car anyway and the designer is just showing how stupid he is. If you want a go kart buy a go kart.

[John Rumm]

In you not so humble opinion I take it?

The designer has demonstrated significant skill in packaging, and the finish while not to everyone's taste appears to be rather good. I think the design should be applauded - there is no reason cars should all be dull and uninteresting lumps.

That would be a Woosh then....

[Andy Hall]

Good grief.

I'd have probably looked at train to Marylebone, cross London in a taxi and then train to Gatwick, but again very time consuming.

[dennis]

Poor skill as it happens, it a stupid design. I bet Ford could do one much lower if there was *any* reason to. He could have driven lying down and used mirrors then he could have fitted a roll bar and actually built a car that might be legal, once you put in the pop up lights and other stuff to pass the mot. Building it on something like an old mini subframe just so you don't have to pass any of the current laws isn't significant packaging skill.

That one is so uninteresting you wouldn't notice it. Ooops, that was the problem. Now where's my lorry tyre jack?

I wonder if he has a flag on a stick for his C5?

[Ivor Jones]

[snip]

: > Reading this thread, I'm beginning to think I'm far too casual and : > reckless about life. : : A few years ago I tried to get to Gatwick by public transport. Just : the two of us. Ended up coach would have cost around EIGHTY pounds. : Much cheaper to drive (although that will depend on length of stay).

Ah well I suppose I'm a bit biased. Working for a company owned by National Express I get free coach travel (albeit on standby, so if the thing is full of fare paying punters I have to wait for the next one).

Yes it takes time but it's better than the worry of wondering what is happening to your car in a multi-storey car park or even worse as I've seen in some of them, driven around by lunatics on full throttle and then parked in the middle of a field somewhere.

Ivor

[Tony Bryer]

On cars like the new Micra they are some way back.

The frog-eye Sprite was so designed IIRC because of a minimum rule re headlight height

[Graham.]

[Rod]

Not at all sure they are any further back from the front of a Micra than, for example, on my old Saab. However, I am assuming that the rules include the full depth of the bumper which was significant on the Saab and not very on a Micra.

I had a feeling that a Jaguar or a Citroen might have had the greatest distance. So I went to have a look on Google image search for Citroen and found this example from one of their concept cars:

On the same page, I also noticed this - which made me smile. (You might want to be careful where you are and who you are with if/when you look at this.):

[Dave]

But I can't see where the toilet rolls are.

Might take you an hour to sample the goods and you will exit this with a bad back, but...

Who cares.

Dave

[geoff]

5-10 minutes walk for me - gloat